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These were the structures used to form the past continuous form.
The past continuous tense, which represents an action in progression in the past. Pay
attention to the next example:
My aunt Rosaline, lives in Pascuales Avenue, near to very big Public School.
Yesterday, she was in her house. She cooked early for all of us. While she was
cooking, the telephone rang. She ran to answer it, but unfortunately, she fell
down. She was crying in a lot of pain, but fortunately, my cousin quickly took her
to the hospital. Luckily, she was assisted immediately, and now she is stable at
home.
In the paragraph above, you could see there was exact information such as: She was in
her house. She cooked early for all of us. She rang to answer it. She fell down. My
cousin took her to the hospital. She was assisted. All these sentences started in the
past and ended in the past. The following sentences, she was cooking, she was crying
in a lot of pain. These sentences show a progression of actions that were happening in
the moment of the event.
Past simple vs Past continuous
We can combine the two tenses, the simple past to express an action that started and
ended, and the past continuous to decorate, or to describe what was happening in that
moment of speaking.
It ______(rain), when I _________(woke) up this morning.
Now in this example we need to take into consideration which action was in
progression, in other words, which action takes longer the action of raining or the
action of awaking from sleep? If you take this into consideration, the longer action will
be the one of the raining. So, our sentences will be set up like this:
It was raining, when I woke up.
Now its your turn, analyze the following sentences and write the correct
tense. Moreover, write the correct letter for each sentence in relation to the
picture.
A) When my father (arrive) home, We __________(have) dinner.